Batho bana ba re tlolisa khati. I keep remembering one of the legendary former Christ the King High School student by the name Frank Mooki Leepa. Legend has it that the late Leepa during his student days would bunk classes and bask around the latrine areas at CKHS and composed music while his peers were busy writing notes in class, all in pursuit of a future unbeknown to them.
As an avid follower of Frank Leepa and his band Sankomota, I would hardly miss his performances to the extent that I could at one stage warble along to all his songs. Today I fully comprehend how artistically Frank captured the crisis that prevails today in our Mountain Kingdom. I can’t believe that years after his untimely death, the message still resonates strongly. Allow me to share an extract of his lyrics from his famous song Sekunjalo.
They go as follows:
Don’t cry my lil’ sister,
Now that I have to go,
Father, I do really want to be here,
But I just can’t take no more,
Everyday humiliation and,
Our lives have been destroyed,
We need to get back our place on the throne,
That’s where we belong.
I doubt that Frank ever thought the same perspective would apply to some middle-aged Mosotho man that I am. When he composed this song, I know for a fact that Frank was making reference to the plight of the Black African male who lived during the apartheid era in South Africa and I have over the years developed a feeling that Frank foresaw that in this era Basotho discriminate and despise each other in a colossal manner beyond absolution.
Today, I can with utmost certainty say that our former colonial masters are revelling in their graves despising many a freedom fighter who worked so hard for the emancipation of the oppressed. History teaches us that when the colonialists handed over nations in the form of Independence, they somehow warned our liberators that they would be back once we self-destruct.
As if they knew then, the situation in many of these liberated nations is indeed on self-destruct mode. Let us look at the socio-economic state of our beloved country as an example. Soon after gaining independence instead of working together to at least maintain and develop the economic outlook of our Kingdom, our social fabric tore into two; those who supported the newly gained independence and were prepared to prove themselves to their former colonial masters and those who were committed to making it difficult for the nation to achieve anything. I don’t want to dwell in the appropriateness or lack of in the mannerisms employed then, but the fact is we were divided in our approach.
The sad part is that the architects of those divisions are either frail, aged or many have departed this world. Those left behind surely have no further role to play going into the future that we want as Basotho.
It is sad and out of sync that the National Reforms Authority and its processes whose slogan is ‘The Lesotho we want’ is led by one of the frail and aged architects of our inherent divisions, are we sure the agenda is the future we want or the retention of the history we had? It does not take a rocket scientist that as a nation, Lesotho does not have any hope. Look at the state of our socio-economic performance.
As a nation we have reinvented the South African version of apartheid and are now dispensing it on the basis of the colour of T-shirts we wear over the weekends at events characterized by loud, provocative political music and artistic dances. These events are designed to soothe our depression emanating from the rampant looting of the state coffers at the expense of service delivery while the chosen few find it befitting to publicly show off their loot in front of the very needy.
Some political scientists have argued that apartheid as a concept was never bad, the only bad thing about it was the fact that it was legalized. Having aged and become wiser than I was when I first learnt about apartheid I tend to agree with this school of thought even though I don’t subscribe to the concept in spite of it having yielded better economic activity at the expense of social hardships.
White on Black discrimination was bad, but Mosotho on Mosotho discrimination is out of this world kea o chaela. National elections are to be held in less than a year from this date, already the Parly hopefuls are at it hosting sporting activities, distributing cheap footballs and football kits in various constituencies. Next will be the formation of new political parties followed by distribution of political party regalia aimed at measuring the forecasted votes to land one a seat or two in Parliament.
What about us the ordinary folk in all this? Clearly our hard fought Independence has not benefited us a nation but has bred profound discrimination amongst us based on party politics and social status which in most cases has been attained by unscrupulous means. Well let me continue with the lyrics and say: